Observations on vertical distribution of fungi associated with standing senescent Acanthus ilicifolius stems at Mai Po Mangrove, Hong Kong

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the higher fungi colonizing the herbaceous mangrove associate Acanthus ilicifolius . This paper reports part of an investigation to determine if there is vertical distribution of fungi on the standing plant .The Mai Po Mangrove, Hong Kong is estuarine with great variations in salinity mainly due to the influence of the Pearl River. Senescent and dead stems of standing Acanthus ilicifolius were collected from mangroves in Mai Po from April to December 1992 . The maximum tidal range observed was 2 .6 m . A stratified sampling strategy was employed to assess the vertical distribution on the standing plant . A total of 44 fungi were collected : 32 Deuteromycotina, 11 Ascomycotina and 1 Basidiomycotina . Very frequent species were Acremonium sp .(55%), Colletotrichum gloeosporioides cf.(42 .5%), Phoma sp . (42 .5%) Fusarium sp .,(25%), Tubercularia sp . (24 .2%) and Phialophora s p . c f. (19 .2%) . Agerita sp ., Corynespora cassiicola, Stachybotrys chartarum, Trichoderma sp. and D82 were frequent, while the remaining species were recorded at less than 10% . Vertical zonation of fungi colonizing the standing stems was observed . The apical portions were colonized by typical terrestrial fungi and the basal portions by marine species . This can be attributed to both the nature of the substratum and the degree of exposure due to tidal inundation . 119

Biodiversity and biotechnological potential of microorganisms from mangrove ecosystems: a review

“…These included 87 Ascomycetes, 31 Deuteromycetes and 2 Basidiomycetes. There are some 169 fungal species from Malaysia (Alias et al 1995), 44 fungi associated with standing senescent Acanthus ilicifolius from Mai Po mangrove, Hong Kong (Sadaba et al 1995), 76 species from Pearl River Estuary, China (Vrijmoed et al 1991), 91 fungi from Egyptian Red Sea (Abdel-Wahab 2005) and 112 species reported from the Bahamas islands (Jones and Abdel-Wahab 2005). In the Indian context, about 48 fungal species were reported to occur in decomposing Rhizophora debris in Pichavaram, South India (Ravikumar and Vittal 1996).…”

Fifty years of marine mycology

“…2). A number of studies have discussed the importance of various factors in the ecology of marine fungi (Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer 1979;Hyde and Lee 1995;Sadaba et al 1995;Shearer 2003, 2004;Alias and Jones 2009), with Sarma and Hyde (2001) proposing a protocol for documenting the diversty of mangrove fungi.…”

“…Acanthus ilicifolius is a widely distributed shrubby herbaceous plant found in mangroves and a species surveyed for fungi by Sadaba et al (1995). Forty four fungi were found on the decaying standing parts of A. ilicifolius in the intertidal zone at Mai Po Marshes, Hong Kong, with the aerial portions dominated by mitosporic fungi.…”

Xyloketal F: A Strong L‐Calcium Channel Blocker from the Mangrove Fungus Xylaria sp. (#2508) from the South China Sea Coast

“…[1] It has been reported that most of the described marine fungi could be found associated with mangroves. [2] Mangroves are thus now considered the second most important hosts for marine fungi after driftwood. Recently, we embarked on a study of the metabolites of marine fungi including those from mangroves from the South China Sea.…”